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SMB focus
14 Print.ITReseller
Samsung’s Hello
Mum solution
transfers
ultrasound
scans directly
to themother's
smartphone
At this year’s CeBIT held inHanover,
Germany onMarch 10-14, Samsung
brokewith traditionby focusing
exclusively on its B2Boffering for
small andmedium-sizedbusinesses,
rather than its attention-grabbing
consumer products.
Samsung’s stand– its largest ever at
CeBIT –was divided into specific zones
for key vertical sectors, such as education,
healthcare, retail, financial services and
government. Each zone featured examples
of how Samsung products can be used to
streamline processes, improve efficiency
and reduce costs.
Often, this is achieved by eliminating
paper completely. In the healthcare zone,
for example, Samsungwas showing the
HelloMum solution,which transfers scans
of a baby from an ultrasoundmachine
directly to themother’s smartphone,
removing the need for a print. In the
financial services zone, Samsung and
SignDocwere demonstrating how
electronic signatures enable users to
sign documents onmobile devices in a
completely digital workflow.
Even so, print remains a key focus
for Samsung, aswasmade clear in
the pre-show press conferencewhere
Samsung declared 2014 theYear of SMB
Solutions; reaffirmed its ambition to
become theworld leader in office printing;
and announced details of a new cloud
platform that provides away for SMBs to
access a range of business services – and
for Samsung and its resellers to generate
additional revenue.
In time, these are expected to include
hosted IT services (e.g. Exchange,
Sharepoint, telephony); cloud-based SaaS
services (e.g. Salesforce, Box); hosted
business apps (e.g. CRM, accounting, ERP);
and outsourced services (e.g.managed
print services, reporting andmaintenance).
SamsungCloud Print
The first solution tomake use of the
SamsungCloud Platform is Samsung
Cloud Print, a new document printing and
sharing app that employs NFCwireless
communications and cloud routing to
simplify printing from/scanning tomobile
devices.The combination of anNFC-
enabled smartphone or tablet and an
NFC-enabled Samsung printer lets users
print to a local device simply by tapping
one on the other.
The big differencewith Samsung’s
existingNFC print solution is that instead
of tap-to-print, SamsungCloud Print offers
tap-to-release. Prints/scans are sent from
a smartphone/tablet to the cloudwhere
they remain until the user releases them by
tapping his/her NFC-enabledmobile device
on the selected printer (users can store up
to 20 printers in the app).
The app can also be used to share
documentswith colleagues and associates
simply by clicking their phone number in
the smartphone contacts list.Alternatively,
you can enter an email addressmanually.
Next year, Samsung is adding aDisplay
Copy feature that will let users send
material to other Samsung devices, such as
aTV or large format display.
SME printers
To enable customers and resellers tomake
themost of SamsungCloud Print, Samsung
is extendingNFC connectivity from its
consumer and small business products
tomachines designed for businesses
with higher print volumes andmore
sophisticated requirements.These include
theMultiXpress CLX-9301 and SCX-
8128NX seriesA3MFPs and the brand
newXpress C1860 (18ppm colour) and
M2885 (28ppmmono) series printers.
Other SMB products launched by
Samsung this year include the ProXpress
M4020/M4070 printer/MFP, featuring
Thesky’s
the limit
Samsung is targetingSMEswithanexpanded
rangeof printers and solutions
Samsung’s XOAWeb open platform
architecture,which allows custom and
third party applications to be installed on
devices; and the Business Core Printing
Solutions (BCPS) suite of embedded,
serverless documentmanagement and
outputmanagement solutions forMFPs
with the embedded version of XOA.
OA recruitment
Aswell as launching newB2B products,
MarkAsh, SamsungUK& IrelandGeneral
Manager for Print, told
PrintIT Reseller
that in the last 12months Samsung had
overhauled and expanded its Print division,
changing 80% of themanagement
positions and increasing the head count
to 39. He added that his priorities this
year were to increase the number of
office automation (OA) resellers and grow
Samsung’smanaged print services (MPS)
business.
“Our reseller recruitment aim for 2014
is to grow the number of OA specialists
geographically.We have a product offering
that is really strong in SMB,which is
predominantly serviced by peoplewho can
offer a local presence and a specialised
skill-set,”he said.
“We have also invested heavily in
an enterprise business team.This is still
indirect and sells via the channel, but it has
a direct relationshipwith the end user.That
team has grown 300% in a year in terms
of the number of people employed.”
Ash said thatMPSwould be offered
both byOA dealers and the enterprise
business team,which targets FTSE 500 and
large public sector bodies.
“We have a dual approach,”he said.
“We have an accountmanager who’s a
generalist in all SamsungB2B products
andwe have a dedicatedmanaged print
team that will workwith resellers onMPS.
This gives the reseller access to something
with a tangible value.They don’t have to
invest significant sums in bringing people
up to speed and investing in the tools and
software necessary to deliverMPS.They
can utilise the Samsung team.Wewill use
best-of-breed industry standard tools for
audit, design, assessment and on-going
printmonitoring.”
SamsungCloud Print will be available for
free download on theAndroid operating
system via ‘Google Play’ and ‘Samsung
Apps’ in June 2014.The iOS-version of the
SamsungCloud Print appwill be launched
in the second half of 2014.
